MISD to file 18 class-size waivers with TEA

Published 8:50 am, Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Students in Ms. Sentena's 3rd grade class at Greathouse Elementary answer math and science questions during a group exercise Thursday at the school. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Students in Ms. Sentena's 3rd grade class at Greathouse Elementary answer math and science questions during a group exercise Thursday at the school. James Durbin/Reporter-Telegram

Photo: JAMES DURBIN

MISD to file 18 class-size waivers with TEA

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Unexpected teacher departures and portable classroom delays are causing Midland ISD to request more class-size waivers from the state than officials previously hoped.

The board of trustees approved the request of 18 waivers to be submitted to the Texas Education Agency at its meeting Monday evening. State law mandates a 22-student-to-1-teacher ratio in kindergarten through fourth grade, and any waivers must be submitted to the board of trustees, then the TEA.

Superintendent Ryder Warren previously said he expected the district to file “fewer than five” waivers, according to a Reporter-Telegram report in September.

The delay of the installation of portable classrooms is responsible for eight of the waivers, Warren said. A teacher for each of those classrooms is in place, and teachers are currently team-teaching with teachers of the same grade until the portable classrooms arrive, Warren said. Team-teaching has been in use for about a month now, he said.

The loss of five elementary teachers in the first six-week period of the school year has further complicated matters, Warren said. All five teachers left MISD as a result of their spouses being transferred elsewhere in the oil and gas industry, he said.

The best-case scenario for these five classes is to find a full-time teacher to fill the vacancies, but hiring becomes more difficult as the school year progresses, Warren said. The teaching positions have been posted on MISD’s human resources openings online.

The next-best option is to find a long-term substitute teacher, he said. Students will be divided among other classes in their grade as a last resort, he said.

Though MISD is still seeking more waivers than originally hoped, this year will still mark the second-consecutive year of decreasing waiver requests. Nineteen were requested in 2013-14, and 109 in 2012-13, according to Reporter-Telegram archives.

The waivers are in addition to the five teachers who were asked to switch campuses and the three who were asked to teach a different grade level at their current campus in order to accommodate growth, according to a previous report.

Warren said the mid-year changes are “hugely tough” on students and teachers alike.

“Think about a brand new teacher,” he said. “She spends two weeks getting her room set up, and then I tell her she’s got to move across town, and she’s spent maybe two weeks with her kids. It’s a really unique process that we have to have developed here.”

In other board of trustees news:

- Trustees unanimously approved the implementation of three TEA innovative courses as a part of the high school Petroleum Academy initiative. The courses are principles of oil and gas productions, oil and gas production I and oil and gas production II.

- A second draft of the proposed new elementary attendance zones will be presented to trustees in November. The initial draft was presented in March, according to Reporter-Telegram archives. Community meetings about the revised draft are tentatively set to begin in December in hopes of refining the zones in January and receiving final board approval in February. The new zones will be implemented for the 2015-16 school year when three new elementary campuses are scheduled to open.

Warren said the zones will be drawn as fairly as possible, though it may not be possible to grandfather in students who wish to remain at the same campus they currently attend. Each elementary campus is expected to be at about 90 percent capacity next school year.

- No members of the public spoke at the public hearing regarding the eight Texas Accountability Intervention System School Improvement Plans up for board consideration. The board approved the plans unanimously.